Welsh Government Strategy for an Ageing Society
October 7th 2021 saw the publication of the long-awaited, Strategy an Ageing Society.
The statement from Deputy Minister, Julie Morgan, says:
“It sets out our vision for an age friendly Wales, which supports people of all ages to live and age well and challenges the way we think and feel about ageing.”
“Older people have been directly involved in creating this strategy and will be involved in its delivery via my Ministerial Advisory Forum on Ageing.”
Cymru Older People’s Alliance has been involved in shaping the Strategy over the last two years, through membership of the Ministerial Advisory Forum on Ageing. We welcome the Strategy and its aims.
Welsh Government have allocated £550,000 to local authorities to support their work to become age friendly and to gain membership of the World Health Organisation’s Network of Age Friendly Cities and Communities. This amounts to £25,000 available to each local authority up to end March 2022. Announcements about any continued funding are dependent on the agreement of the Welsh Government’s budget for 2022-23. To gain membership, local authorities must show how they are engaging with older people.
The Vision for an Age Friendly Wales has 3 cross-cutting themes:
- Creating an age friendly Wales
- Prioritising prevention
- A rights-based approach
The 4 Aims are:
- Enhancing well-being
- Improving local services and environments
- Building and retaining people’s own capability
- Tackling age related poverty
It is expected that the Welsh government will publish details of how they intend to progress implementation of the Strategy through a Delivery Plan, early in the New Year. COPA are contributing to the development of that plan. You can read the Strategy HERE.
The COPA statement on the publication of the Strategy is HERE